


Professor

by EverybodyLovesEggsy



Series: To Be Continued...? [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Horcruxes, May Continue Story Later, One Shot, Pre-Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Professor Tom Riddle, Sane Tom Riddle, Tom Riddle is not Tom Gaunt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:27:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29207361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EverybodyLovesEggsy/pseuds/EverybodyLovesEggsy
Summary: What if Tom Riddle applied for the defense position directly to the board of governors instead of Dumbledore?Will continue story, when inspiration strikes, but for now, enjoy my oneshot :)
Series: To Be Continued...? [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1988845
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	Professor

Tom Marvolo Riddle was not a stupid man and never had been. Rather opposite, he was a genius – although admittedly not a modest one – and knew his self-assessment was not due to an inflated ego. If nothing else, growing up in that damn orphanage taught him to be observant, which allowed him to become aware that the quickness in which he picked up new concepts was not strictly normal – especially when many of those concepts he had taught himself while in Hogwarts were considered to be above the capability of his age level. And so, between his irritation at the slow pace and unchallenging material of Hogwarts, and the praise from the professors, Tom saw just how much more intelligent he was than most.

It was due to this intelligence that Tom was under no illusion that Albus Dumbledore, now that he was headmaster, would not hire him as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor should he go to him. The man had always been too suspicious of him and too quick to assume he was Dark – which he wasn’t wrong about, granted, but being Dark did _not_ automatically make one evil, especially not at the age of eleven when Dumbledore decided that he was.

A part of him was very tempted to go to the man anyways, see what he could learn from the ensuing conversation, curse the position and drop off his Horcrux in the Room of Requirement upon being denied, and then fully embrace the alter ego he had been creating for himself. However, one of the many things that his genius had taught him was how much he genuinely loved teaching. Since he was always ahead of others his age, those brave enough to approach him (typically other Slytherins, though the occasional Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff that were either bold or desperate enough) would come to him for a bit of tutoring. It was during those times that he learned how much he loved spreading his knowledge unto others. It was especially satisfying when it got others interested in researching things for themselves and then debating with him. So, the part of him that was determined not to be forced to leave Hogwarts – the only place he has truly considered home thus far – ignored the urge to see what would happen if he went to Dumbledore and made a plan to get hired as the DADA professor.

Which is how Tom (now legally Tom Marvolo Gaunt[1]) found himself going to the Hogwarts Board of Governors.

He used parselmagic to place a glamour that not even Dumbledore’s glasses could see through to hide his deteriorating looks that he had not yet been able to fix, and then easily charmed the governors as he had been doing to his advantage since he was eleven. Less than half an hour later, he happily walked out of the meeting, filled-out teaching contract in hand, wishing he could be a fly on the wall when Dumbledore received the board’s letter informing him that they had hired him as the DADA professor. He settled for enjoying the less-than-happy look the man sported when he arrived at Hogwarts on the same day the other professors did so that they could prep for the new school year.

As expected, during the first staff meeting in August 1967, the avid Dumbledore supporters were wary of him upon introduction, those that had taught him previously (such as Horace Slughorn) welcomed him excitedly, and those that had only heard of him were somewhere in between.[2] Weeks following that, when the new school year began, the students thought of him similarly: those from light/Dumbledore-supporting families were wary, children of his school friends (namely Lucius Malfoy and Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange) and other dark families were excited, and the muggleborns, neutral/anti-Dumbledore-supporting families, as well as those who didn’t recognize his name were somewhere in between.

During the first few months of his first year of teaching, Dumbledore kept an annoyingly close watch on him, much like the man had done while Tom had been a student – reminding him why a part of him had been so tempted to give up his desire to teach and curse the position instead. The scrutiny made him want to scoff at the man. Did he seriously think that Tom was stupid enough to openly recruit while in Hogwarts? No, Tom let those who already followed him do the work for him, while he simply gained their trust by being a mostly fair professor, if a little lenient on those in Slytherin considering everybody else always assumed the worst of them. And if Tom was able to subtly encourage doubt in Dumbledore both in and out of his lessons, then all the better for him. Especially since the man could say nothing about it as there was no proof of Tom doing anything but teaching and answering his students’ questions.

The only downside to his becoming a professor, Tom had found so far, was that he had to be extremely careful of showing what sort of reading he did during his downtime. He was forced to restrict his research to tamer subjects than he would otherwise in order to avoid Dumbledore claiming he was Dark. While Tom was slowly introducing the idea that Dark magic was not inherently evil and that it was intention that made certain magics so, it would take much more time than the few months he had been teaching before the wizarding world would abandon their prejudice against the Dark. However, for the most part, Tom was able to take the scrutiny in stride, containing his thirst for knowledge to books that would not bring him under suspicion. That being said, he was relieved to be able to research anything he desired during Yule break since he was not required to stay at Hogwarts when classes were not in session. Returning from break to continue teaching – and parting with all of that restricted knowledge at his fingertips – was much harder than Tom expected, though he was also not surprised that he found himself a frustrated at returning to Dumbledore’s watchful gaze and the need to curb his thirst for knowledge. It was due to this frustration that, on an impulse, Tom went on a walk through the castle after curfew to look for a place to take his frustrations out.

If he let a small portion of his frustration out on late-night rule breakers through the loss of points and giving out detention while doing so, well, his strict reputation was only bettered for it.

After about an hour of looking, Tom had been about to give up the search for a good place to vent when a door appeared[3] near him. Curious, he cautiously opened up the door, only to find a room with dueling dummies. Feeling triumphant at his find, Tom quickly made sure there was no one else in the room, before giving into his desire to let out his frustrations.

As he released spell after spell onto one of the dummies, Tom’s mind wandered to the research he couldn’t openly continue while in Hogwarts. Upon realizing that his looks were deteriorating due to the Horcrux ritual, he had begun looking into ways to reverse that side effect, as well as research more into the Horcruxes to make sure there were no other unexpected side effects. Considering he had already made five of the six he planned to make and there had been no other side effects that he could tell[4], he didn’t believe there would be.

Just as Tom finished the thought, a soft thump drew his attention away from the dummies. A few paces away was a table that Tom was sure hadn’t been there before. On top of the table were three books, none of which Tom recognized the titles of. He warily approached the books, not sure where they had come from. After making sure nothing was cursed, Tom picked up one of the books to examine it, and nearly dropped the book in shock when he realized it had information on Horcruxes. How had these gotten here and why? Aside from the book he found in the restricted section when he was a student – which he had noticed was no longer in the library – there had never been books about such dark things in Hogwarts. Quickly turning to the other two books, Tom realized both also had at least one chapter each that discussed Horcruxes. Deciding that the why and how the books appeared could be figured out later and that the opportunity to read more on Horcruxes was too good to pass up – especially since he didn’t know if they would disappear or someone else find this room that could apparently provide people with what they need – Tom settled in to read.

As Tom did so, Hogwarts hummed in happiness. Finally, she was able to help one of her heirs. Soon, he would understand the consequences of splitting his soul, and would fix his mistake before he hurt himself and the students in his slow descent into madness.

[1] The way I see it, since Tom doesn’t plan to embrace the name Voldemort out in the open (only among his followers) because it would draw unwanted attention to himself (especially now that he is not going with his curse-the-DADA-position plan). However, in his hate for his muggle father and muggle heritage (as well as knowing he will get more respect with a pure-blood name, especially as the only ones who would know his true blood-status would be those who had known him during his school days), he has his name changed to Gaunt, which he is able to do since he is the last of the line and there is no lord to stop him from doing so (Tom has already murdered the remaining Gaunts and set up Morfin for the murder of the Riddles at this point). Obviously, Tom doesn’t particularly care for the Gaunts any more than the Riddles since they abandoned him and his mother, leading to him being in the orphanage, but he is also smart enough to realize that taking up the name Slytherin would draw nearly as much attention to himself as using Voldemort out in public. So, he is forced to take the Gaunt name and is grudgingly okay with it since it is well-known that the Gaunts are descendants of Slytherin. Also, I figure he doesn’t change the “Tom Marvolo” part of his name because he knows that Dumbledore will continue to call him Tom, regardless, in a bid to ‘remind him’ of his origins, so he decides to settle with his name so as not to give Dumbledore any power over him by making it obvious how much he dislikes his name.

[2] Okay, so Hogwarts Professor line up with the date they started the position: Headmaster – Dumbledore (1956), Mediwitch – Pomfrey (c. 1956), Potions – Slughorn (1931), Transfiguration – McGonagall (1956), Charms – Flitwick (c. 1953), Herbology – Herbert Beery (Potter wiki, c. 1965), Astronomy – Unknown until Sinistra (c. 1985), History of Magic – Binns (alive when Tom goes to school, ghost c. 1970), Care of Magical Creatures – Kettleburn (c. 1967), Flying – Hooch (c. 1975), and the rest (Arithmancy, Divination, Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes, and Alchemy) are unknown until 1990s. Tom went to school from 1937-1945, so Binns and Slughorn are the only known professors that are still professors outside of Dumbledore to know Tom. That being said, it is likely that he was in school at least partially at the same time as McGonagall and Pomfrey so they would also know him some.

[3] Yes, this is the Room of Requirement :) For my purposes, Tom didn’t know about the room (the Grey Lady gave him access to the diadem but it didn’t reveal the room) and since he has been living at Hogwarts as a professor, instead of hiding the diadem, he has had it hidden in his quarters with a bunch of protection spells on it.

[4] So, just a note that I would try and explain in the continuation of this story, first of all, while Tom may not recognize that he is less patient and a bit more impulsive, his friends (Corvus Lestrange and Abraxas Malfoy, for example) would have. Second of all, as I said in the last note, since Tom didn’t know of the ROR, the diadem has been with him in his quarters, meaning it is close by. I imagine having the Horcruxes nearby has slowed his descent into madness so it is not quite as apparent yet as it would have been if he had gone with the plan to hide the diadem in Hogwarts after cursing the DADA position. This is why Tom doesn’t appear insane in this fic yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys like it! Don't forget to leave kudos and comments on what you guys think!


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